Given how the show almost desperately keeps its characters from growing-or resets them almost immediately whenever they manage it-it's genuinely hard for me to imagine that there is a really better future in store for Hilltop and its inhabitants

After trudging along since its midseason return and with only four episodes remaining in the season, The Walking Dead desperately needed to kick things into high gear. And thankfully, that's exactly what "The Key" accomplished.

As with last week's "Dead or Alive Or," it's a lot easier to sit through The Walking Dead's circuitous dialectics when the characters are actually doing something while they state their respective cases.